“We are poking fun at Cigna to highlight a serious issue: the lack of fair coverage for value in emergency medical care,” said ACEP’s president, Rebecca Parker, MD, FACEP. “Many people don’t realize how little insurance coverage they have until they visit the ER, and then they are shocked at how little their insurance company pays. The $9 million Cigna spent on an ad starring well-loved actors playing physicians would have been better spent on patients. Emergency physicians fight hard for their patients who are bearing an increasingly large share of the burden for their medical care.”

ACEP’s video closely parodies the script of the Cigna video, but emphasizes the life-saving care emergency physicians provide to nearly 140 million patients every year, much of which remains uncompensated. In recent years, the insurance industry has raised deductibles and premiums and narrowed networks while increasing their profits, shifting the burden to patients and the physicians who treat them.

“Cigna, and others like them, are exploiting federal law [EMTALA] to reduce coverage for emergency care knowing emergency departments have a federal mandate to care for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay,” said Dr. Parker. “We encourage all patients to investigate what their health insurance policy covers and demand fair and reasonable coverage for emergency care. Emergency physicians are there for their patients 24 hours a day, every day of the year. We can’t say the same for the insurance industry.”

ACEP is the national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine. ACEP is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research and public education. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, ACEP has 53 chapters representing each state, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A Government Services Chapter represents emergency physicians employed by military branches and other government agencies.